“It is the job of a satirist to make people in power uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable.”
That was Tony Hendra, and he knew whereof he spoke. Hendra, who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease on Thursday, helped make a lot of people very uncomfortable indeed with his work for National Lampoon and Spy magazine, among others.
Had it not been for the trailblazing Lampoon some of us would have laughed a great deal less over the past half century. The magazine had a nut-crushing stable of funnymen, among them Hendra himself. And its “Radio Dinner,” “The National Lampoon Radio Hour,” and “Lemmings” led directly to “Saturday Night Live,” “Animal House,” “This Is Spinal Tap,” and the “Vacation” movie franchise.
Hendra’s “Magical Misery Tour” was a brutal takedown of John Lennon using Lennon’s own words from an interview in Rolling Stone. I bet John wasn’t laughing when he heard that one.
Hendra may not be as familiar to you as Chevy Chase, John Belushi, P.J. O’Rourke, or Christopher Guest. But he was right in there among them, one of the ha-ha mechanics throwing shit, just to see what might stick, and to what, or whom. Making people in power uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable.
One of his last smiles before the disease took those from him came when he learned the results of the last presidential election, said his wife, Carla.
“He was an immigrant who sailed from London into N.Y. Harbor on the SS United States after being given free passage in exchange for performing stand-up,” she told The New York Times. “What was to be a two-week visit became 57 years, because he believed in the promise of America.”
Tags: National Lampoon, Tony Hendra
Mad Blog Media 
March 6, 2021 at 8:06 am |
I remember that dog ad….sad to see the good ones keep checking out, but I hope they put a few cold ones in when they get there in time for our arrival.
March 6, 2021 at 8:34 am |
Actually, that was a cover, from January 1973. Some of their covers were mur-der. Here’s a whole pile of ’em. Check out December 1975 for what could be a young Donald Trump showing his love for the working man.
March 6, 2021 at 8:47 am |
I remember some of those covers.
March 6, 2021 at 8:54 am |
The Lampoon, like Playboy, paid really well, so they attracted top writers, artists, and cartoonists. Neal Adams, Frank Frazetta, Bobby London, Gahan Wilson, etc.
March 6, 2021 at 4:20 pm |
O gawd. I bought NatLamp every month and laughed till I cried. Those cats were twisted and I reveled in it.
March 6, 2021 at 4:36 pm |
Remember “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink,” by P.J. O’Rourke? That one has made the rounds of the Innertubes over the years, and it still works. Here’s one I found.
March 7, 2021 at 10:56 am |
Yup. That one had me doubled over for sure. I wasn’t sure what to make of O’Rourke after I found out he was such a hard core republican.
March 7, 2021 at 12:06 pm |
Hey, he’s still funny, no matter which side he’s on. Did you ever read his “Parliament of Whores?” Even the chapter titles are funny:
“The Three Branches of Government: Money, Television and Bullshit.”
“Our Government: What the Fuck Do They Do All Day, and Why Does It Cost So Goddamned Much Money?”
March 6, 2021 at 11:37 am |
ALS just stinks!